Leprechaun's Mark Jones On Creating An Unlikely Franchise & Directing Pre-Fame Jennifer Aniston [Exclusive Interview]

Horror was in a bad way during a good chunk of the 1990s. The slasher craze kicked off by John Carpenter's "Halloween" had more than run its course, so the studios, which never truly respected the genre in the first place, generally threw up their hands. If it wasn't a sequel or a Stephen King adaptation, they really weren't interested.

This is where upstart, mid-range production companies came in. There was still a healthy market for horror in the home video market, and, if you made the movie cheaply enough, potential to make a lightning-quick killing in theaters. Mark Jones' "Leprechaun" accomplished the latter in 1993. Released over the second weekend of January, the silly yarn about an ill-tempered fairy who goes on a murderous rampage whenever anyone steals his gold scared up $8.6 million at the United States box office. Given its $1 million budget, it was a modest hit for Trimark Pictures. Then it hit video stores, and a franchise was born.

Who knew horror nuts were clamoring for a cheeky series of films wherein greedy miscreants are offed in gruesome fashion by an Irish folk icon? Writer-director Jones had an inkling. The television writing veteran, whose small-screen credits read like a Gen X pop cultural primer — he got his start writing for Hanna-Barbera shows like "Scooby's Laff-A-Lympics" and "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels" before hitting live-action pay dirt as a scribe on "The A-Team" and "Riptide" — had his eye on directing, and sold Trimark on his vision. When Warwick Davis, who stole our hearts as the Ewok Wicket and Willow Ufgood, signed on to play the title creature, the film became an irresistible goof.

"Leprechaun" not only launched an eight-movie franchise (with a Roy Lee-produced reboot in the works), it served as Jennifer Aniston's pre-"Friends" debut. There was something magical about this first movie, and Hulu is rightfully celebrating its legacy by streaming all eight movies during its "Huluween" celebration. I had the pleasure of chatting with Jones on the 30th anniversary of his unexpected triumph, and we discussed the origins of his movie, what it was like to direct a neophyte Aniston, and most importantly, why the A-Team couldn't kill people.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

You were incredibly prolific in 1970s and '80s television. You really had quite a career going. What prompted you to switch over to movies?

Well, I was a writer and then became a story editor and a writer-producer in television, but I had not directed. And I really wanted to direct since I was in high school. That's all I wanted to do. I was in primetime TV and "A-Team" and all those shows, but I was a writer, and making the jump to directing is not as easy. So I said, "I'm going to write a horror movie. I know that if it's low budget, I can probably get it sold — if I come up with something unique." And so I really wrote "Leprechaun" to direct and to get my shot as a director.

And it kind of worked, even though the studio didn't want me to direct because I was a first-time director. They offered me more money for the script than they paid me for the script and directing. But I didn't care, because I was okay from TV. So I said, "The only reason I wrote this is to direct." So that's why I did the movie. We didn't think it would be as big as it ended up being, but I was very pleased that it was.

What were you taking your cues from in terms of writing a horror movie? It's comedic in tone, but it sounds like it started off serious?

Well, there was a script that was serious, but once I started getting interest from Trimark ... I came from writing "Scooby-Doo," and I said, "You know what? I want to do a live-action Scooby-Doo." That's kind of why I made it colorful. The sets were colorful, and if you look at it, [so were] the clothes. I wanted to make it a horror movie, but not a straight slasher. When Warwick got involved, he wanted to bring a character to the Leprechaun, and we worked together and it sort of evolved. But I always wanted it to have a sense of humor. I didn't want to take it too serious or do just a bloody slasher movie.

The studio actually pushed back against it. They wanted it more horrific and less comedy. I keep saying there's a director's cut out there where there's four or five funny scenes they cut out. I think I was right, because "Leprechaun: Origins" was not my favorite. It wasn't the tone of the "Leprechaun" movies, and they didn't use Warwick. And so they went back to [comedy] on the last one, "Leprechaun Returns," which I thought was really good. They went back to the original and even brought in Ozzie, the character from the first one. So it was designed to be what it was.

With Warwick and all his one-liners, did he ever pitch any ideas, or was that all you?

Well, every writer loves when people say, "Oh, so was it actually written in the script or did the actors come up with it?" Warwick was terrific, and he brought his personality to it. But a lot of it was mostly scripted. We did work together for a couple of weeks before we shot, and I would rewrite the script after we'd work. He'd come up with a line, or he had a little business or a bit, and I would put it into the actual draft on the revisions. His little dances and his little stuff that he did ... he really got into the character. It obviously worked in successive Leprechauns as he continued, bringing what he knew would work. So he was very instrumental in making this movie work the way it did.

The shoe-shining bit is brilliant. When I saw it in a theater, people were just howling. That was kind of the thing when you came out of the movie, you're like, "You have to go see 'Leprechaun' for this scene." How did that idea come about?

I'm so glad to hear you say that, because they wanted me to cut it out in the script. I did some research because of the Lucky Charms commercial, and I said, "No one's done St. Paddy's Day Leprechaun. Maybe it could be a unique horror movie that everybody would know." I then researched and found out leprechauns can be kind of evil and that they're shoemakers. So I said, "Well, that's obvious. I mean, that's like a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Let's throw him shoes where he can't resist it." I fought and fought and fought to do that, and they finally let me have it.

And it did get some of the biggest laughs in the theater. But I don't think the studio understood where I was going. I don't blame them because they were good enough to give me my movie, and they gave me the money to make it, but I did have to wrestle with them a lot. But I'm glad you brought it up. That's actually one of my favorite [things]. They should have continued it. I also created the four leaf clover. That's not mythology. That I came up with, that you could only kill it with a four leaf clover. So there's a couple things that I had fun with.

I'm sure you get asked this all the time, but how was Jennifer Aniston on her first major feature? Dd you see that megastar potential in her?

We were reading girls for [SAG] scale. She was just excited because she had never done a feature. She had done a few episodes of television, but this was her first feature. And she walked in the room and I knew there was something, the charisma, she absolutely had it. My producing partner, Michael Prescott, also felt it, and so did my casting director. And so I had to wrestle with the studio a little bit. They kept wanting me to read other girls, and I said, "I think she's going to be ... she has it."

Did I think she'd become Jennifer Aniston? No. I would've been nicer to her if I knew. But she was great to work with and she was a pro, and she was excited about doing her first feature. I bumped into her a couple of times after "Friends" was a big hit, and she said, "You know, Mark, I know people say that I deny I made the movie and this and that..." and I said, "Listen, Jennifer, if I ever have the success you have, I'm going to deny I made 'Leprechaun' myself." And she got a kick out of it. But she had fun. It was her first movie. Who knew where she'd go?

So the leprechaun has been all over the place. He's been to L.A., Vegas, space, the Hood twice. Do you have any favorites of the subsequent films?

I thought the Vegas one was pretty good, and the Hood. The space one not so much, but I know it was kind of a gimmick. But I liked the "Hood" and "Back 2 Tha Hood." "Origins" was dumb. I liked the last one, "Leprechaun Returns." And I hear they're doing another one.

Yeah, you can't kill the leprechaun.

No.

I have to ask because, looking over your career, all those shows you wrote for ... I mean, this was my childhood. "Laff-A-Lympics," "Captain Caveman," "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo," "Knight Rider," "Riptide," "A-Team..."

"Sheriff Lobo," I love that show.

I was going to ask if you have a favorite? How was "Sheriff Lobo"?

That was my first [live-action] show. Glen A. Larson, who created "Magnum P.I.", "Battlestar Galactica," and "The Fall Guy" ... I worked on a lot of his shows. He brought me in and put me on "Sheriff Lobo," which had comedy elements in it. I came from animation, so he said, "I need a funny guy." I met him through a friend. He read a script and said, "Come on staff."

I was on "The A-Team" with Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell, and that was great because it was a number one show. I did a lot of those and was a story editor on it. I don't have a favorite, but my first prime time job was "Sheriff Lobo," so it's a little special to me. I had fun doing TV, but really, directing was the most fun. That's why I got into features.

On "The A-Team," very few people ever died on the show. The A-Team didn't kill anyone. Was that a discussion? Was there ever a time where it was like, "Okay, we're going to have to kill someone in this episode"?

Here was the deal: It was NBC and it was eight o'clock. Brandon Tartikoff bought the show that Frank and Steve created. And they said, "We need these guys to have guns and machine guns and all that stuff." It was different times in the '80s. They said, "Okay, we'll let you have all the shooting and all the explosions, but you can't kill anybody." So if you notice, they would shoot and the car would flip over and then they'd always cut to the guys crawling out because they didn't want anybody to die. It was kind of funny. It was a live-action cartoon. No one died, and that was because NBC said, "The only way you can have shooting at eight o'clock is you can't kill anybody."

All eight "Leprechaun" movies are currently available to stream on Hulu.